The CFIA regulates over 1000 fish and seafood importers. Under the CFIAs Fish
Import Inspection Program, importers of fish and seafood for commercial sale must hold
either a Fish Import License or a Quality Management Program Import Licence from the CFIA.
Importers are responsible for ensuring that their products meet Canadian regulatory
requirements including the food safety standards established by Health Canada.
Non-compliant shipments are not permitted for sale within Canada.
All licensed fish importers must meet the following requirements:
Importers are required to make every shipment available for inspection prior to
distribution and sale in Canada;
Importers are required to notify the CFIA of every import shipment within 48 hours;
Importers are obligated to keep accurate and complete records of imported shipments so
that shipments can be easily traced; and
Importers must obtain information on the manufacturing processes and controls used in
the production of all ready to eat and canned products which they import.
Additionally, importers holding a Quality Management Program Import (QMPI) licence must
meet the following requirements:
Importers must develop an acceptable quality management system demonstrating how they
will meet, as a minimum, the product inspection frequencies, methods and standards set by CFIA.
Once accepted by the CFIA, the importers must implement and comply with their written QMPI.
The importers must forward all product inspection results to the CFIA.
The CFIA audits and inspects importers to ensure that they are meeting the conditions
of their license.
CFIA Inspection
Fish and seafood products imported into Canada are inspected to prevent the marketing
of unsafe, unwholesome or mislabelled products.
The CFIA uses a risk-based approach to determine the frequency at which to inspect
imported product. The frequency varies based on food safety risk, the history of
compliance of a particular product, the history of compliance of the processor, and the
country of origin of the product. Health Canada carries out risk assessments on specific
products and the Agency is responsible for enforcing chemical contaminant guidelines set
by Health Canada.
Fish and seafood products imported from processors who have never shipped products to
Canada are inspected at a rate of 100%, meaning that a representative sample of fish is
taken and tested from each first shipment.
The frequency of inspection for imported products with a history of compliance ranges
from 2% of all shipments for non-health and safety analysis such as label analysis, up to
5% for health and safety analysis such as mercury and drug residue analysis. This
risk-based approach results in a high rate of confidence in the compliance level and
safety of imported products.
Shipments selected for inspection are sampled according to the internationally-
recognized procedures of CODEX Alimentarius, the international standard setting body for
food safety. This approach provides assurance that the sampling is representative of the
shipment.
Expert CFIA and accredited private laboratories staff use state-of-the-science
technology to provide specialized testing. These food laboratories test for a wide range
of chemical and biological contaminants such as veterinary drug residues, pesticides,
metals, bacterial pathogens, marine toxins, and food additives.
When testing results show the emergence of a problem related to a particular product,
processor, or country of origin, or the CFIA is made aware of problems in exporting
countries, the CFIA may increase its rate of inspection up to 100% inspection.
If a shipment fails to meet Canadian regulatory requirements, and the product cannot be
brought into compliance by the importer, the entire shipment is removed from Canada or
destroyed. In addition, the foreign processor is put on CFIAs Import Alert List and
incoming products are inspected at a rate of 100% until four consecutive shipments comply
with Canadian requirements.
If the CFIA identifies products that were not appropriately dealt with by an importer,
enforcement action is taken which may include recalling the product from the market,
revocation of the import licence and/or prosecution under the Fish Inspection Act and
Regulations and/or Food and Drug Act and Regulations.
P0579E-07
June 8, 2007
